Little Rock police get federal grant to reduce gun crimes

wireready_01-16-2018-00-12-02_09877_lrpolice
(AP) _ Little Rock police are using a federal grant to buy technology that will cut the time it takes officers to link shell casings found at different crime scenes.The nearly $480,000 public safety grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow police to purchase their own National Integrated Ballistic Information Network machine in efforts to combat violent crime in the city.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the unit can be used to determine whether shell casings found at different shooting scenes were fired from the same gun.

The technology will allow investigators to trace the ballistics in-house instead of waiting on a slower turnaround from a machine officers use at the state Crime Laboratory.

The number of nonfatal shooting victims in Little Rock has increased every year since 2014.

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